Tuesday (Sept. 2)
2 p.m.
Carolina Inn, Hill Ballroom North
211 Pittsboro St., Chapel Hill
Under Secretary Jay Cohen of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will join U.S. Rep. David Price and Chancellor Holden Thorp on Tuesday (Sept. 2) to celebrate a new center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Carolina has received a multimillion dollar grant to establish the Center of Excellence for the Study of Natural Disasters, Coastal Infrastructure and Emergency Management to study natural disasters in coastal areas.
Media representatives are invited to attend a ceremony celebrating the launch of the center. Speakers will include Cohen, Price, Thorp, as well as the center’s executive director, Gavin Smith, former director of the Office of Recovery and Renewal in Mississippi, and the center’s principal investigator, Rick Luettich, director of the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences, based in Morehead City. Smith was instrumental in Mississippi’s Hurricane Katrina recovery program and also worked in the N.C. Division of Emergency Management from 1996 to 2002. Luettich, also a professor of marine sciences in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences, is internationally recognized for his work in storm surge and other coastal monitoring.
Note: All the speakers will be available to talk with media immediately following the event.
The center launch comes at the peak of the hurricane season, with Hurricane Gustav bearing down on the Gulf Coast, emphasizing the importance of a research center that can provide emergency managers with the latest scientific information to prepare and protect coastlines and citizens when storms threaten.
With the Homeland Security grant, UNC is partnering with other universities, government agencies and industry representatives to create and direct research efforts for the center. The research consortium builds on UNC’s strength in coastal hazard modeling, coastal planning and information technology.
According to DHS, the grant will provide UNC-led research at least $2.5 million a year for six years, and possibly considerably more as the center develops. UNC is teaming with Jackson State University in Mississippi to carry out an education and outreach component to disseminate and implement the research into practice.
Background link: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/science-and-technology/
homeland-security-funds-unc-center-to-study-natural-disasters-in-coastal-areas.html
Center of Excellence contact: Gavin Smith, (919) 919 606-5578, gavin_smith@unc.edu
News Services contact: Patric Lane, (919) 962-8596, patric_lane@unc.edu